- Payment from outside the EU:

PAYPAL has turned out to be the best solution.
Just go to www.paypal.com and register as "basic member" (no charges, no obligations). Follow the simple instructions.

!! Please don’t send me a check from outside of Europe, because the charges for me would be horrible!!

My adress:
Wolfgang Schüler
Bergstrasse 4
87600 Kaufbeuren
Germany

- As soon as the amount is arrived, I walk to the postoffice, post off your exemplar(s)
and inform you, that the book is on its way to you.
- I guarantee that your order will be executed correctly!
- In the 28,- Euro/ 33,- US-Dollars/ 42,- SFR the postage and packing
costs are included - no matter if you live inside Europe or somewhere
else on the world.
Belonging to the postoffice’s information, the delivery time inside
Europe will be about 1-4 days and outside of Europe about 3-5 weeks.
Though I can’t take no guarantee for those dates!!
Those of you who live outside Europe and can’t wait that long, have got
the possibility to order by air-mail - for this you would have to pay
9,- EURO/ 12,- US dollars/ 13,- sfr. more.
For detailed additional ordering - informations
click here

ABOUT THIS BOOK....

This book should be source of inspiration for you. You can study what some of the world’s best
drummers are playing. What they are playing in drumsolos and what they are playing when
accompagning other musicians. Both aspects are very important for a drummer. You should be
a good "sideman" and a good soloist too. That’s not easy. I know good sidemen who avoid
soloing and good soloists that have problems to integrate themselves into the music of someone
else. Try to be a master of both.
I want to give you an important advice for the work with this book: DON`T TRY TO COPY
THOSE DRUMMERS, BUT INTEGRATE THEIR IDEAS INTO YOUR PERSONAL STYLE.
I’ve got students who asked me to show them how to play like Vinnie Colaiuta. My reply is:
"we listen to his records, we work us through the transcriptions and I explain you his world of
rhythm - and after that, you forget your wish to copy him, it’s impossible for you to play like
him, because you are not the person Vinnie Colaiuta with all his individual characteristics. You
live in your personal psychological world and music is a manifastation of your own individual
intellect and emotions. Learn the tricks of Vinnie, but find YOUR style."
Vinnie is influenced by Tony Williams and Dave Weckl is influenced by Steve Gadd. You can
hear that. But they don’t just copied. They took the ball and worked out new amazing ideas on it.
And now THEY are idols and a source of insperation for the next generation of drummers and
so on....
And don’t think in terms like ".....is the world’s best drummer". Who was the best pianist? Arthur
Rubinstein or Vladimir Horowitz? Don’t make a competition. You can only say: " This is the drummer
I like the most." It depends on your preferences. If you are a metal-oriented drummer, you won’t be
too interested on Gene Krupa. You know what I mean? As Glenn Gould said:"Competitions are
contraire to musicianship." If you like virtuosity, then it’s ok, but don’t do it to impress people.
A lot of the stuff in this book is real virtuos. But also real musical. You aren’t forced to be able to
play the complete book. There are a lot of cool licks in it, that are not too hard to play. Dicide for
yourself.
My main motivation for transcribing and practicing on them(not only my own) was the wish to learn
new things. There was a point when I realised:"Damn, I’m always playing the same stuff." There were
fill-ins and grooves that fitted the most to my physical concept of playing and so I played them all
the time. Working on transcriptions forced me to make new movements and even when they were
real easy I sometimes had problems to get into them. But when it worked I was truly satisfied.
As I played in fusiongroups and bigbands with complex arrangements I couldn’t only play along
with some ordinary bummbummbumm. I mean, there are compositions that are wonderful but they
don’t give you the slightest idea of what to play on the drums to them. Two good examples are in
this book: "Pools" and "Plaza Real". It is very difficult to find drumparts for these songs - drumparts
that support and fit perfectly into the unnusual moods of these songs. Pete Erskine and Omar Hakim have
found solutions that are brilliant. Their drumparts are a demonstration of enormous musical feeling
and imagination. And look at it: there are no 32nds-killerpattern in it! Only warm, thoughtful drummming.
That is it what makes a great drummer too: give him a song and he invents a drumpart that fits
so perfectly that you can’t imagine it any other way. As if the composition was done for this groove.
So I transcribed some drumparts due to my insecurity of what to play to a song. The first few rehearsals
I played the transcribed drumparts note for note, but then I started playing more free, trying to bring in
my own ideas.
Let’s face it: the drumset is a very complex instrument, specially its integration into songs and it takes
a lot of experience to do that job real fine. May this book help you finding your way.
I have added small essays about each drummer featured in this book. These essays are absolutely
subjectiv. You won’t find infos there you can find on any website or in a drummingmagazine. I just
wanted to tell you how I got them to know and what I think is so special about them.
The TRANSCRIPTIONBOOK is also available at: